Barcelona: Barcelona regain their winning ways in La Liga with a hard-fought 1-0 victory over Levante at Camp Nou on Monday (December 14). The Blaugrana created plenty of good chances to but Aitor Fernández had a great night in goal and it took a perfect finish by Lionel Messi in the 76th minute to give Barça an important win at home and a much needed 3 points.
Barça started the game slowly, they lacked the shine and fluidity on the ground which did not trouble Levante at all, De Frutos missed a huge chance in front of Marc-André Ter Stegen in the first 15 minutes and failed to give his team the lead.
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A Lionel Messi free-kick fell on track of Antoine Griezmamn for a header but Aitor Fernández made a huge save and Clément Lenglet missed the rebound against an open net.
A beautiful volley from the edge of the box by Jordi Alba was brilliantly saved yet again, and the Levante keeper’s best save came on another volley, by Griezmann after a cross from Messi that Aitor denied.
In the second half, Barcelona picked up the game from where they finished in the first, dominating territory and possession and continuing to create and fire shots on goal, although they couldn’t truly trouble Aitor for a while.
It finally came with 15 minutes to go, on 76 minutes due to a combined pressure created by Griezmann, Martin Braithwaite and Francisco Trincão, who recovered the ball and found Frenkie De Jong, who in turn found Messi, who found the back of the net to finally beat Aitor and score the only and decisive goal.
Barcelona decided not to take any major risks and stay solid as Samuel Umititi was subbed on, as third center-back. Umtiti made a couple of really important interventions and the game ended with a big save from Marc Andre Ter Stegen, as he denied Levante an equaliser and the final whistle came to give Barça a hard-fought win and three important points.
